What’s your favorite Absolutely Fabulous episode?

Mine is Poor. I died laughing when they were in the grocery store, & later when Edina fell out of the car. No matter how many times I see it, I still laugh out loud.

"Hospital" is the most quotable, so it's probably the funniest.

Hospital.

"Come in, Mrs. M. I think you're in for a pleasant surprise."

'Death', due to the line, ' You only work in a shop, you know. you can drop the attitude.'

I also love Hospital.

One of my favorite gags happened in Poor. Edina and Patsy walk into the grocery store (they had never been in a grocery store in their lives and had no idea how grocery shopping worked) when Edina pulled out her shopping list, waved it in the air and shouted "hello?" because she thought someone who worked there would run right over and do her shopping for her, like a servant.

For me it's the wine-tasting in the south of France, "This is the one, this is the one... No, THIS. THIS is the one....No this one.... " (all the while wine is dribbling down Edina's chin).

My friends and I enacted that scene for years.

r1 Agreed. Them getting out of the car and swinging their bags at another car is hilarious. I dont know why, but every time I see that part I laugh so hard.

^^and then Edina drove shitfaced drunk back to the chateau, backing the car into a tree and swerving all over the road.

Morocco for the lecherous Uncle Humphrey alone.

[quote] Mum, what was Patsy?

The Sex episode has so money wonderful moments and scenes culminating in the run around the university looking for Saffy to find the orgy video.

Idris Elba makes a brief appearance as a male escort in SEX.

R9, I love that episode too. Didn't they also sell Saffy to somebody to marry?

I need to rewatch the whole series.

Hospital is great. Can't get enough of Pats. Patsy. Patsy Stone.

R11 No fucking way was that Idris?? Hahahaha!

Didn’t Patsy say he looked like Sean Connery? Such a coincidence he became a contender for Bond

[quote] Didn't they also sell Saffy to somebody to marry?

Yes.

There’s only like 8 episodes. I love them all.

When I want to get my friends into the show, it’s usually France or Death or the Birthday episode.

There's a few more than 8, sweetie.

Ab Fab "Hospital" gets my vote if for no other reason than that wonderful nurse gets best of Eds everytime.

Nurse: Is this your daughter?

Edina: [looks at Saffy and back to the Nurse] Yes.

Nurse: Well, maybe there's a God after all.

Next "Happy New Year" due in large part to deliciously vicious Kate O'Mara (Pats sister Jackie)

Justin: Did you have the same father?

Jackie: No one knows. Mother was such a slut.

Patsy: It could have been any of the men in any of the bars in France. Y'know, she was always the entertainment.

Oliver: Before slot machines?

Edina: She was the slot machine!

"Fear"

Magda: [on the phone] No, no, no, mate. I don't even get out of bed and piss for that kinda money!

For record have used that line a few times when negotiating a new contact.

Poor is my most favorite episode. The whole sequence starting with them getting into the small car until stumbling out drunk when they get stopped by the police man is one ROFL moment after the other.

The high point for me is when they attack the Frau who dared to use her car's horn. "Watch your language!"

I'm Patsy and I'm an alcoholic

I believe the actual quote is "my name is Patsy Stone and I'm an alcoholic".

I went through the trouble of actually recording every episode/special as it aired and have the whole collection (much more than 8 episodes, BTW).

All of my favorites have already been mentioned. Perhaps the only thing about trip to the South of France that hasn’t been pointed out is Patsy's indignation after they were let go off the cocaine bust because the substance they had in their possession was found to be talcum powder.

Dime other random lines that were quoted as nauseum by my then circuit of friends:

“Somebody took the steering wheel!” (As Patsy disappears into the ground).

“Olive oil”

“That’s beautiful Mum, did you write that?” “It’s Madonna Dahling”

“Patsy, I am 74 years old…”

“I just love getting caught up in the drama!!!”

“I’ve got arms!” (Flailing them about)

“Clear surfaces! Minimalism”

“I haven’t had anything to eat since 1972..” (we’d say that a lot especially after binge partying).

“Money, tickets, passports…”

“It’s been magnificent, all this health and energy running, and the sun shooting Rays at me etc etc.” “Champs?” “Oh yeah” (lights a cigarette)

“Moiselle, Mademoiselle!”

“The last mosquito that bit me…”

“Just the one, dear?”

And the most quoted one by far

“Health, health, health dahling 🎵 “

Already mentioned above:

“You only work in a shop do you can drop the attitude”

“Hello?!” (At a supermarket)

“This is the one we liked and THIS is the one we didn’t like…”

Season 2’s Edina was so ugly and indifferent to the experience of all the other characters, and that was amazing to watch and enjoy. Almost any episode in that season could be a favorite. The styling, with the ratty wigs and big nose, sometimes metallic stickers on her face, all amazing.

Gestures like flicking her ashes in her mother’s purse, the harsh mistreatment of her accountant and (noted above) the unhinged attack at on the frau in the BMW who dared to beep at Edina and Patsy for blocking an intersection in that smart little Alfa Romeo Spider Véloce (possibly Jennifer Saunders’ personal veheicle? I read that she is an Alfa admirer). I’m a car guy and I love the épisode poor for the contemporaneous footage of the Alfa Romeo in new condition. I also liked the imperious waiving of her shopping list at the grocer (‘Hello?’) implying that she expected personal service. And, amazingly, she holds her lit cigarette up the her ex-husband’s eye over tuition expenses, then trills ‘la,la,la,la-la’ when Saffy’s focus returns to the squabbling couple. All great stuff. The ugly, profligate, menacing Edina is my favorite, but most of the series is a pleasure to watch. So good.

None. You watch one episode and you've seen em all. I had an ex who was into AbFab back in the 90s and he turned out to be one of the most brainless of himbos over time.

When you see them dancing and lights strobing and Saffy turns the light on and you realize they’re not at a rave, but their own living room. “Go to bed!”

My other favorite saying is, “I’m going to be thin, and do thin things!” I say this all the time!

I have to admit that it took me over a decade to get the final joke in Morocco (that Saffy engaged in a local sordid sex act that involved her body being covered with yogurt).

Always love the line "PR! I PR things ... Lulu!" (that pause - where she tries to come up with something or someone she represents - always makes me laugh for some reason).

Also "names, names, names!" or Patsy devastated "I'll sue!".

How could I have left:

“Champagne for Lulu!”

R28 LuLu’s timing was pretty good. She cuts off Edina calling for a ‘glass of champagne for Lu…’ with ‘Bottle!’.

Lulu must be a good egg to participate in the narrative as herself, particularly in the episode ‘Best Friend’. She was very transparent about dealing with Edina only in terms of tangible benefits, like an expensive lunch ‘three course and a pudding’, ‘ans DON’T talk to me!’.

Hospital has some of the best lines ever in it, and I love it so much.

"God, I can just see the headlines now: 'Home alone mother left to fend for herself, while goodtime daughter shacks up student-style - "I left her with a neighbour and friend," she said.' Oh yes."

"Oh would you just shut Titicaca up!"

I'm also a big fan of "Fear". I like that it touched on the sadder side of Eddy and Patsy's lives, but without going too far away from humour at the same time.

"You'll be alright, won't you, Pats?"

(Patsy has a complete mental Repulsion-like breakdown, then flashes back to her deadpan expression:)

"Yeah, I'll be alright."

R23: "Is this the Car Clamp Club?"

R10, I love the moment they have all split up and are running around the school, and Eddy's hairstylist and his boyfriend are running down one corridor:

"What are we looking for?"

"Oh, I don't know, we're just caught up in the drama! Run!"

“Is he from Gabon?”

I love the sight gag of Eddie finally realizing that nobody is going to help her with her shopping list and she starts pushing about a dozen shopping carts at the same time.

"Moist is my word du jour!"

I honestly couldn’t choose.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Oh my god, you are all crazy, there is only one and one best episode and it is “A Small Opening!”

“I was a self raising flower” sums up the entirety of my and Saffy’s childhood.

The possibility that Eddy would pose nude, with complete control of course, for Cosmo.

The buzzing phone sequence along has about five of the best jokes of the whole series, including the restocking of Bolly in the frig after they take out six bottles and the tiny shoe line.

The whole Barbara’s wig and Hollywood Kabbalah sequence with the buy in bulk red thread.

The entire play of life through Saffy’s eyes including a revisit of the “Bring me a knitting needle!”

The actor apologizing to Patsy for not getting the tits right.

The kitten, especially the throw away like of “It’s not the same one” and not to let Patsy see it.

And this is just the tip f the iceberg.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Gran: Who was that group she used to run around with? The Beatles...the Beach Boys...

Eddie: IT WAS THE BAADER-MEINHOF!

Well, how much is the stick? I'll buy my own stick.

That's a great episode, too.

[R24], Edina said, "It may not all be great and good, but it's not that bad you know. So cheer up, it may bloody well never happen."

Loved Jealous (PR PR person's award of the month club lunch or whatever it was), ISO Tank (Roumanian babies) and Job (Jeanne Durand.)... that clip is the two of them in perfect character, but especially Patsy at her cynical, pragmatic, scheming, bullshitting best.

Fat. "In this body there is a thin person dying to get out." - "Just the one, dear?" I'm fat and it cracks me up every time.

don't remember which episode it was from but this:

[quote] . She was very transparent about dealing with Edina only in terms of tangible benefits, like an expensive lunch ‘three course and a pudding’, ‘ans DON’T talk to me!’.

She was also a good sport about participating in an episode that clearly stipulated that she was not at the top of her game anymore.

I liked when after devouring her lunch, Lulu then lifted the plate and licked it clean.

All of the episodes in the first three seasons were extraordinary.

After that the show fell apart. A few good moments in each one, but nothing like the consistency of those first three years.

Has no mentioned this?

Jealous might be my favorite. "Walk the steps" (to the stage) with so many great lines. The look on Eddie's face when she loses the PR Person of the Year is priceless. And once they get home she has a classic meltdown.

Yes we have, r46

Lumley is an actress who can translate character and delivery into comic genius. She is amazing but I credit it to her playing the part as a character as opposed to delivering a comic performance. One delivers the other.

Loved Patsy with the monkey at the zoo...

"You don't know me."

When Eddy falls out of the car, drunk off her ass after their all-night bender. When Patsy breaks her own wrist. When they spend their French vacation in the wrong house (again, drunk off their asses). These three stand out for me.

She said she stole the falling out of her car drunk thing from hanging out with Bananarama. I guess those gals knew how to party.

I liked the episode where Edina had to start budgeting. I think that's where the shopping cart came into play.

There was also another episode in a foreign country where they stayed in a caretaker's cottage, not realizing that they could have stayed in the main house, next door.

Patsy: She's the one that ruined your figure. SHE's the one that turned you into this POTATO we see before us!!!

I love the buzzing phone episode too!

"The GREAT TRANSMUGERANCE !!"

When they come to, on the huge pile of black garbage bags, heading out to be dumped at sea.

[quote] Patsy: She's the one that ruined your figure. SHE's the one that turned you into this POTATO we see before us!!!

Love the sight gag that follows where Eddie is stretching her blouse to look down her body.

Qu’est ce que vous faites ici??!!

(Pat him away yuck yuck)

Pastsy and Saffy are playing Monopoly:

Saffy: "What are you doing?"

Patsy: "I'm taking money from the bank."

Saffy: "You can't just take money from the bank. It's against the rules."

Patsy: "I own Park Place, I can do whatever the bloody hell I want!"

Yeah some of these episodes still have me rolling on the floor. Some of Edina's background comments while Saffy and her friends are talking are funny as hell. "Chewed through the ropes?" while the Asian girl is tittering about a boy staying in her room overnight but leaving in the morning.

Edina's dislike of Saffy's nerdy friends was always funny.

Well, hello, Danny.

One of my favorite lines in the series is when Patsy is referring to someone "She is so anally retentive she can"t sit down for fear of sucking up the furniture". One of my favorite shows is when Jennifer Saunders's car gets towed and she goes on a rant in court about stupid people.

That was their friend Bettina and it was Patsy who said it R65. Loved when they flash to the past and show Bettina's millennial apartment. Everything was white with no furniture.

With June Whitefield gone and Jane Horrocks hating the show I honestly can't see a series 7 coming to fruition.

Patsy on Saffy: “She’s so cold, I bet she has her period in cubes.”

POP SPECS!

[quote]I love the moment they have all split up and are running around the school, and Eddy's hairstylist and his boyfriend are running down one corridor

"Oh, hello, Patsy!"

Mother washing up with condoms for gloves saying there's no fingers in these gloves....Patsy overdosing on HRT and becoming a prissy frau baking and wearing a house dress,

Old Patsy's bloomers falling down at the end of [italic]The Last Shout[/italic]

r64 Edina's courtroom rant about stupid people was brilliant.

just tax the stupid people!

Eddie: 'Cancel my aromatherapy, my psychotherapy, my reflexology, my osteopath, my homoeopath, my naturopath, my crystal reading, my shiatsu, my organic hairdresser. And see if I can be re-birthed next Thursday afternoon.' Bubble: 'Consider it done.' (France episode) Also: Eddie: "How do you look?" Patsy: "Like a Zeppelin in a condom.

Poor

Hospital

Sex

The episode where they nearly marry Saffy off to the Italian gigolo.

R66 Jane Horrocks hates the show? I'd never heard about this...

[quote] Bettina's millennial apartment

Oh, dear. I hope for your sake that was a wild AutoCorrect guess.

“Let’s get celebritied up! “ (snorts coke)

“Who dies in their own vomit these days?! No one!” – Patsy on modern behaviour

Magda on fashion shows: “If the models get any younger, Pats, they’ll be chucking fetuses down the catwalk.”

Saffie on whether she’d had ‘the chat’: “If you mean that time you sat on my bed and shook me awake at two in the morning, stoned out of your brain, and slurred into my ear ‘By the way, sweetie, people have it off,’ then yes, you told me the facts of life.”

Edina explaining bottled water: “It's a mixer, Patsy, we have it with whisky.”

Edina: (splutters) “You cannot give these sort of clothes to the poor! Darling, I'm sure they've got enough to contend with without the added humiliation of wearing last season's, sweetie!”

Magda: “Fire her, she screwed me, hire him, he screwed me!”

Jennifer Saunders must be a genius.

I think I like FAT and FRANCE most only because these are from Season 1 and we couldn't believe what we were seeing. Cried laughing.

The show had the best sight gags. Who can forget the one where the mother walks by when Saffy checks Patsy's breast for her physical?

Lol “Don’t let Patsy see it” (the kitten)!! Wtf?!

Another great sight gag is Patsy stumbling into an open grave and the mother, when Eddie falls into her dad's open grave, trying to save face by saying "she's very upset, you know?".

R49 What does that mean? Of course she’s an actress playing a character.

Marianne Faithful as God = brilliant.

The second series is the best with the classic episodes, Hospital, Poor, Morocco, and Death. Season one has France and Season 3 has Sex and Happy New Year.

Season 4 has great moments through out but the only really great episode is Small Opening though Menopause is pretty strong, too.

Season 5 is....well, again, there are really funny MOMENTS sprinkled in every episode but there's also clunkers. Especially Saffy's awful husband.

TBH, all the specials leave me cold, though there are hilarious bits...well, maybe not in Gay, which I really dislike.

The last three specials are...not very good.

There were some turn offs too/ for instance I couldn’t stand more than 15 seconds of watching those two assistants (the one with the saucer eyes and the brunette) sputter unintelligible nonsense at each other. Also, as good an actress as she is , I’m afraid Mo Gaffney couldn’t make her character ride to the occasion. Also, Bubble was OK I only in small doses and as a visual with her outfits.

The cockney woman holding the girls hostage was pretty good. Good enough meaning better than most!

Chairs. Chairs, might be nice.

Death also features the, I believe, one time only appearance of Marshall's chipper girlfriend who is ok with becoming 30, but hyperventilates when 40 is mentioned and Marshall says "we haven't started 40s therapy yet".

Also, the nurse is the best. The whole bit about "Just making some conversation" in that heavy Jamaican accent was hilarious.

R88 Anyone who doesn't like Fleur and Catriona or Mo Gaffney's hilarious Bo is uninvited to the party.

R44 I don't think she is implying that Lulu's career is on the skids....she's implying that Lulu is about to bolt from having Eddie be her PR person.

Wow, r93, I never saw it that way and thirty years later here I am finally getting it. Thanks.

Same goes with Twiggy, in later seasons, who is just over Eddie and her "celebrity ..." gig pitches.

Iso tank, the French chateau, the shop with Minnie Driver, the sex tape...there are too many great ones to choose a favorite.

In the French one, the funniest part to me is when the old man knocks on the door and tells them to go to the main house and they just think he is a crazy person yelling gibberish at them.

I also love the episode with Patsy's sister. "I'm SEVENTY-TWO, PATS!" And when Patsy eats the potpourri.

And then of course, there's "...A KNITTING NEEDLE!" That one scene is actually shocking and kind of emotionally intense for a second, but Joanna Lumley rockets it to hilarity immediately with her bizarre animalistic reaction to being slapped.

This series was a work of genius at its height.

[quote] And when Patsy eats the potpourri.

It's her sister Jackie, played by Kate O’Mara, who eats the potpourri.

I always love that in this episode, Saffy's gay dad and his boyfriend worship Jacky and let her get away with being cruel to Saffy. Gays and their divas. LOL

Sorry,... worship Jackie ...

Whoops, R97, you're right. I was thinking of how Patsy ate a potato chip. She's as good a physical comic actor as Lucille Ball was.

Nothing that came after the 90s episodes. Those were just embarrassing.

Morocco, for the lovely Yentob and the knowing look he gives Saffy at the end.

[quote] She said she stole the falling out of her car drunk thing from hanging out with Bananarama. I guess those gals knew how to party.

Jennifer and Dawn watched them chug down bottles of vodka.

The episodes containing the poetic questions of Eurydice Colette Clytemnestra Dido Bathsheba Rabelais Patricia Cocteau Stone:

“ But is it Art!?” - Death

“Is it a bee?” - A Small Opening

R96 Just noticing that Patsy doesn’t put down her cigarette to fight.

There are a few scenes where Edina defends Patsy’s generally awful behavior, once by yelling ‘she’s just TRYIN’ TO BE NICE!!!’ It’s so tone deaf and implausible, you have to laugh.

Also the vitriol for the Mother is really well-expressed. Edina dismissively utters ‘You knewwww that….we are not impressed ‘. And also « Jesus Christ the way you for give that OLD Woman!’. Also the comparison to Eraserhead was pretty good.

Morocco

[quote]Morocco

I think that's the episode where 'quite big tits' is from

R97, it's almost heart-breaking at the moment Jackie is being cruel to Saffy and Saffy looks to her father and his boyfriend for them to defend her. There are a number of really small reactions throughout the series like that, that don't get dwelt on too much which is really the best way to do it, I find.

Ab Fab also does something that Fawlty Towers did too that I love - there are so many jokes, and they make sure there are smaller jokes that often are under the laughter, or said as an afterthought, and it makes rewatching such a pleasure. Plus funny jokes in other languages is another similarity.

EDINA: And one of those, there.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Du vin rouge?

PATSY : And those two vodkas.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: De la vodka.

EDINA: This. This. This .

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Ça c'est du parfum, madame.

EDINA: Oui.

PATSY: And two champagnes.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Deux champagnes.

EDINA: Thank you. What's in there?

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Ça c’est la poubelle, madame.

PATSY: Yeah, we'll have two of those.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Vous desirez des cacahouettes?

PATSY AND EDINA: No.

EDINA: Peanuts!

PATSY: Oi, peanuts! Sullen, stingy, bloody French bitch.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Madame.

PATSY: Moiselle. Mademoiselle!

I also love when Eddy is so excited that Saffy has a friend like Danny, she's all over him, offering him beer, then she sees the nerdy guy, and adds: "You?" and hisses at him like a cat. Then: "Sisters Grimm, can I tempt you?" to the girls.

All of them, every time. This is a great thread.

As others have mentioned, “Just the one, dear? “(June Whitfield was a treasure), and Patsy grave-diving in “Death” (Joanna was amazing at physical comedy in this series) come to mind.

Love this show so much.

A great moment (sorry; I don't recall individual episodes in their entirety) was when Eddie had a temper tantrum in the kitchen to protest Saffy. First, she picked up and banged a couple of things on the counter and waited for a reaction just like a toddler. No reaction. Then she threw things. No reaction. It just kept escalating, but the brilliance was Saunders's body language and especially the devious and attention-hungry rage on her face while also very obviously being comical.

I honestly think that even in today's socially correct environment, AbFab could get away with what it did because it was just so fucking funny.

AbFab had tons of great lines, but I thought one of the better story lines when Edina leaves everyone to go on some kind of personal retreat ("I've never been to me!") only to end up in some field muttering to herself..."god I'm bored" (or something like that).

I loved the reaction from Saffy when Eddie asked her about being called sweetie and darling when she was young:

"It was because you couldn't remember my name for the first three years.."

"Listen to mummy's funny voice, sweetie...Bombay mixie."

Sisters Grimm can I tempt ya? We use that line all the time. So hilarious.

Poor. Looking good costs money, darling.

Eddie: "You don't get Princess Di to a fashion event..

Bubble: "Anne. Princess Anne."

Eddie: "As well as, is it?"

Bubble: "Instead of. Only. Possibly with daughter."

Eddie: "Why?!"

“SWEETIE…DARLING… LET ME IN!”

Which is the one with the Romanian babies?

[quote] Which is the one with the Romanian babies?

That was "Iso Tank", R116.

I think the best series was the second, with "Hospital", "Morocco" and "Poor" being among my favourite episodes.

"I wonder what Romanians look like, darling. I'll call Patsy. Patsy, what do Romanians look like? Ivan Lendl! Thank you!"

Lacroix sweetie.. Lacroix

[quote] “SWEETIE…DARLING… LET ME IN!”

Another one where she does a wonderful prat fall

I love Poor, France, and the fashion show one. France was before they made Bubble into a completely nonsensical character. At that time, she was strange and airheaded but had unplumbed depths. When she was revealed to be the only one who actually spoke French, for example.

I love Bubble....I think they were wise to just use her as light comedic seasoning, here and there. Same with Mother. They never dominated an episode; just had moments here and there.

In America, there would have to be at least one Bubble centric episode to really showcase character and actor.

Thank god they resist that sort of thing in the UK.

Morocco, 100%.

Poor and Morocco are tied for my favorites.

I recently rewatched the 1981 Brideshead Revisited, and I was extremely surprised to see how similar Pats and Eddie's wine tasting afternoon was to Sebastian and Charles's. I think Jennifer may have gotten some ideas there. Some of the lines were even similar.

[quote]In America, there would have to be at least one Bubble centric episode to really showcase character and actor.

God, in America, every episode would have to have a moment where Eddy assures Saffy (and thereby the audience) that she really does love her, and a moment where Patsy and Saffy acknowledge there may be something they like about each other too.

I love the final episode of season two where the three of them are locked in a room and all the resentment is coming out in a hilarious way. Imagining that same episode done by the Americans is horrifying.

[R125], this is for you.

Charles: Ought we to be drunk every night? Sebastian: Yes, I think we should.

"Sebatian falls into fountain."

Speaking of sight gags:

La Croix, darling La Croix.

Saffy: She INHALED our kitchen!

Eddie, frustrated from being lost in the French countryside: GOD, I HATE FRANCE!

Patsy, after her and Eddie are reunited with Saffy in the Morocco episode: Damn!

Eddie: Pats, you have no morals!

Iso Tank with the Rumanian babies being delivered during Saffy's presentation in the classroom is one of the best gags the show ever did.

1. New Best Friend

2. Poor

3. Sex

4. Happy New Year

5. Small Opening

Any episodes where they are inebriated to infinity…

I don't know if it's *the best* but one of my favorite episodes is a young Miranda Richardson as a friend of Patsy & Eddie's that used to have a fabulous trendy life, only to show up completely frazzled with a baby. The episodes ends with Saffy & the mother assuring her that the husband loves her, even if she is a shrew, only to hear Eddie getting it on with the husband over the baby monitor with Eddie saying "so, that's it, then?" By the end of the episode, Eddie kicks them all out

r134, Eddie wants them gone, that's why she "seduces" the husband to make bossy Miranda leave.

And then, of course, we later learn that sleeping with him turned him gay.

We're probably lucky that the attempts to do an American version never made it past the pilot stage.

The original show works because it isn't afraid to be nasty and at times, rather cruel in its comedic approach. That and the drug use, are integral to the success of the show and you can't really do either on American TV. Not even on cable.

Some of my faves:

oldwoman*at*riskofbeingstrangledbyowndaughter*dot*com

Knick 'n Knack Frick 'n Frak. We'll sell any old thing...Well sell yourself!

The later season had their moments, too.

[quote]The original show works because it isn't afraid to be nasty and at times, rather cruel in its comedic approach.

For all their abuse to others, Patsy & Eddie always end up being the butt of the joke, which you know if you watched the show. But I agree that the reaction of most Americans, who didn't even really watch the show, would be "OMG that daughter & old lady are BULLIED!" Plus - I say this with affection - Brits just have a pessimism and caustic sense of humor that (most) Americans don't necessarily appreciate.

America had its fair share of AbFab type of comedies. For example, Married With Children worked on the same premise of watching unlikable characters getting their comeuppance at the end of each episode.

^^ not even close.

Yeah, the "pet the dog" trope seems to be something that is more desired in American entertainment.

Also, I think it was Stephen Fry on some documentary or discussion about humour, who summed up the difference between British humour and American humour being an example of a comedic sketch at a restaurant, with a customer bullying a put upon waiter. The American comedic actor wants to play the customer, the British comedic actor wants to play the waiter. (He explained it better than I did here.)

R126 I know what you mean.

TEST AUDIENCE WITH NO GOOD TASTE/INTERFERING STUDIO EXECUTIVES: The villain must never win, always make sure there's a happy ending. If there is a man and woman who are both young, attractive and straight make sure they get together in the end.

It's like the fucking Hay's Production Code never fucking left.

True, r137. What made Abfab so funny was that Patsy and Edina were absolutely horrible people with no redeeming qualities and everything they did was motivated by selfishness and greed. They drank and used illegal drugs to excess, and generally behaved in an obnoxious and hateful manner to everyone they encountered. And it was all brilliantly funny.

An American show would've had Patsy and Edina given some likable traits, and they would have to pay for their awful behavior. It would never have worked.

^I always wondered about that - why ARE they both likeable by the audience? Neither of them have any real redeeming qualities, except for the fact that they are kind of naive and innocent despite the fact that they are constantly conniving. They are attractive, I guess, because they are simultaneously so scheming and yet so clueless about what they are doing. And they seem to breeze through everything and come out on top - loads of money, living the high life, etc., even though they seem like complete idiots. It's kind of mysterious.

What redeems them is their sense of humor. As horrible as they are, they are both very quick and funny and make the kinds of fast, mean jokes homos really love.

And when I say redeem, I only mean redeems them as watchable. Otherwise they are truly horrible humans.

Funny horrible humans.

I think they are both likeable. Patsy is certainly creepier than Eddie, but Pats has a darker past which makes you feel sympathy for her, and I admire her intolerance for Saffy's milquetoast personality. Saffy is the one I DON'T like, although I feel slightly sorry for her. She's boring. I have found myself feeling surprised at myself for liking them. Even their malice is not *quite* all the way malicious, it usually has justification to it. -R146

^They are both highly impatient, and I'm the same way, so maybe I identify with their indignation and fury. - R146

I think their only good characteristic is their loyalty to each other, but even that dissipated a few times. Still they came back and acknowledged their need for each other.

No, they don't always come out on top...they get smushed back frequently.

The characters aren't unlikeble (or we wouldn't watch them). They behave poorly and do awful things but the writing and the performances do give the characters depth. Eddie really does care for Saffy; she's just totally unsuited for motherhood. In many ways, Eddie is one of the most realistic Moms on television. She's an exaggerated version of mothers we've all met in real life....selfish trainwrecks who really had no business having kids in the first place.

And, at the heart of the show, is the relationship between Eddie and Pats...they're really all each other has. They're both dysfunctional messes from dysfunctional homes. And, while they bitch and moan about Saffy and the boring middle class life, they both cling to it and always come back to it in the long run. Pats is always suggesting to Eddie that she give her/leave her the house in her will. Patsy yearns for a family and home and that's what she has with Eddie and Saffy and Mother/Gran.

I think they also do a great job with Saffy. You're supposed to feel sorry for her for the awful childhood she had but Saffy herself is pretty ghastly, too, just in a different way from Eddy and Patsy. Some of her awfulness can be blamed on her terrible upbringing but part of it is just her priggish, uptight personality.

I also think Julia Sawalha deserves more credit for the success of this show. Without Saffy you wouldn't HAVE a show...she's the glue that holds it all together and while she has the thankless task of playing the "straight man" slash antagonist, she nails EVERY scene she's in and frequently scores some terrific zingers.

Jennifer Saunders and Julia Sawalha really did look like they could be mother and daughter.

I couldn't stand the annoying bitch daughter, like who wouldn't want a fab mother like Edina? Anyway they episode where pats goes to the hospital in Christmas.

Hard to remember the best or a real favourite after all these years, so I'll say every and any episode wherein Patsy or Eddy exclaim "It's just a little cociane", or "it's just a little Champagne".

^ cocaine... excuse me gentlemen; I've been imbibing

R152 They were even more believable as sisters on Mirrorball. They're really only 10 years apart from each other. Julia played younger on AbFab and Jennifer played older.

You can't take them seriously, the show is a spoof like soap was. It is hard to not like them because they are so funny.

EMERGENCY LIPOSUCTION!

"Our mother gave birth like a giant lawn sprinkler, scattering bastard babies to the four corners of the Earth."

I remember hearing so much chatter about it and then watching a couple of episodes and was repelled because they were unrelentingly awful. No redemption. Then I realized it was the North American schooling in taking the awful characters and giving them a 'just kidding' moment. Once you realized there would be no redemption you realized how insanely funny it was - and how foreign.

Emma Bunton: Saffy's coming home today...

Patsy: NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

R151 I think your assessment is exactly right.

And the show is lightning in a bottle. But it did inspire some other good TV characters, like Wendie Malick in Just Shoot Me and Wendie Malick in Hot in Cleveland. She was a slightly less cartoonish Patsy.

I can't think of any other character like Eddie, though, and I don't think anyone could do exactly what Jennifer Saunders did with Eddie. Her mannerisms and movements were bizarre and hilarious and entirely unique, her angry muttering also was unique, and the characterization of the angry/desperate for relevance/fun-loving/mean-yet-caring bad mother also just couldn't be done so convincingly by anyone else. It's clear she envisioned the show. It's something that can only be done by an auteur, and yes, in the US, nearly all television is made by committee. One reason I love The OA is because it also clearly was the work of auteurs who followed their visions and took the viewer on a wild trip they couldn't have imagined on their own.

The way I see it is that Eddie does love Saffy, but Patsy is her soulmate and life partner and her first loyalty and so Saffy suffers for it.

And we don't dislike Saffy only because she is dowdy and a stick in the mud but also because she is jealous of Patsy's relationship with her mother, and our focus is on Patsy and Eddie as a duo. We like the duo, but if we were the daughter, we would despise Patsy just like Saffy does and we would resent our mother for being loyal to anyone else above us, but especially to such a messy person. The Saffy character makes sense. She's miserably codependent with dysfunctional 'parents' Eddie and Patsy.

Top three hilarious movies/TV shows about child abuse:

1. AbFab

2. Mommie Dearest

3. I, Tonya

[quote]The way I see it is that Eddie does love Saffy, but Patsy is her soulmate and life partner and her first loyalty and so Saffy suffers for it.

Patsy: And remember darling, I've known you longer than your daughter.

[quote]"Our mother gave birth like a giant lawn sprinkler, scattering bastard babies to the four corners of the Earth."

I thought it was the four corners of Europe this whole time.

I’ll get shit on for this, but to me Kath and Kim often reaches similar brilliance to AbFab, especially when you look at Sharon as being in the Saffy role. I love when Kim completely discounts Sharon’s friendship as anything of importance, or makes her slave away for obvious things like being Epponnee’s god mother, yet she is the only friend she really has. That dismissive and obvious cruelty of a well meaning character is for some reason hilarious.

[quote]like who wouldn't want a fab mother like Edina?

My best friend. She has a mother like Eddy and it's very difficult. Not at all as fun in real life as it appears on television.

[quote]I’ll get shit on for this, but to me Kath and Kim often reaches similar brilliance to AbFab

I don't see why you should get shit for that, I agree with you. The creators of Kath and Kim even said at one time that they got some inspiration from British sitcoms (like Ab Fab amongst others) in the way the characters could be awful and have no redemption, that the characters would be in the same space at the end of every episode and the beginning of the next.

I see the show of Ab Fab being like a show about Eddy with the typical angel (Saffy) and demon (Patsy) on her shoulders, pulling her in each direction. And I agree with other posters about how well Julia nails her character. There's a great moment later on where Saffy thinks Patsy has died, and the expressions that cross her face in the blink of an eye are really good. Happiness, not wanting to be happy because it's not the right thing to be in the face of someone's death, concern for her mother and how she might be going to take it...

Not much love for the episode Parralox on this thread, but it’s one of the better mid cycle efforts. There is some good, subversive humor (June Whitfield in a porn loop, the priggish arts administrator blurting ‘Christ, what do we call these people now?’, Titicaca’s ugly, weeping wound from being burned by Edina). The redesign of the set was impressive, too.

THIN???

The one where mother kills two innocent people and is aquitted on all charges.

Patsy needs Eddie more than Eddie needs Patsy (and not just for the free rides). Patsy is completely lost without "a donkey" like Eddie making her look pretty and competent, like in New York where she utterly fails on her own (her new colleagues laugh at her, nobody fears her).

Eddie has her own family to fall back on (not that she appreciates them much when Patsy is around) and Patsy is scared of being alone, that's why she acts so possessive when it comes to Eddie (like, when formerly stuck up Bettina, Miranda Richardson, shows up). Eddie is Patsy's sidekick she can boss around or manipulate. Patsy only matters through Eddie. Even when she has to do a make-over for a morning show (guest star Dawn French) she completely blanks.

R169, Parralox gave me such a strong sense of déjà vu - I saw it the day it was released and the scene where Titicaca says to Saffy: "Do you want to KISS him? Do you want to... SEX him?" was so familiar, I was sure I had seen it before I saw that scene haha. I know déjà vu is thought to be merely a misfiring of the brain, but I kept thinking that I had seen that scene years before it was written.

That episode is, of course, the birth of Eddy's song "Walking Down the Road", though hear it is "Driving down the road, looking at the things... looking at the handle on the door..." Patsy: "Not really very catchy, Eddy."

I know the show never reached the same heights after it initially ended in 1995, but I did find by season 5 that we had fallen into a great "comfort" space with the show, and that season managed to claw back some of what made the show so enjoyable, while building on the (in my opinion) pretty terrible fourth season. I noticed that Sue Perkins was responsible for additional material from season 5 onwards, which I imagined helped. I dunno, the fourth season seemed almost like a different show in some ways, I always wondered if Saunders was throwing in a lot of ideas from what was to be Mirrorball into Ab Fab in that season, and those ideas would've worked better in that show. Season 5, though not at seasons 1-3 levels, does feel more like them, and I really enjoy watching it, and those three most recent episodes too, especially Identity and Job.

Incidentally, I really wish she had done a season of Mirrorball. I quite enjoyed the pilot and would've been interested to see where it went. A lot of it would've been about musicals from the look of it, which I know I would've enjoyed, plus a greater role for Harriet Thorpe (Fleur from Ab Fab). The problem probably would've been that with using all the same actors it may have only ever been viewed through the lens of Ab Fab by people.

^*here

A friend of mine had a mom who was sort of like Eddie. Of course, we all thought she was fabulous and hilarious, but I think her kids would have rather had a mom who knew how to do laundry and pack lunches.

Surprised to see the dislike for series 4. It’s actually my favorite one. Yeah, there are some duds — Fish Farm is impossible to get through — but I think Small Opening is the best episode of the series and Donkey is very underrated. I love that there are parts of Donkey that allow itself to get sentimental and it brought a real emotional energy to the episode.

I’d say aside from Small Opening, Birthday and Iso Tank are my other favorites. I’m a sucker for any episode with the whole family at the table including vicious queen Oliver and trendchasing Bo.

I loved all the scenes with Edina and Justin, her ex-husband and Saffy's father. They hated each other and their verbal sparring was too funny.

Another poster mentioned Edina muttering bitchy asides as other characters were having a conversation in the same room. Those lines were always great.

I love Fish Farm, because it highlights how toxic the relationship of Eddie and Patsy is. Eddie could be a decent person, settling down with an actually decent guy, but Patsy enables and nurtures the worst that Eddie has to offer. The same goes for the end of the very first episode, where Patsy fakes a call from the Betty Ford clinic so Eddie and her can go on a vacation together without Saffy judging them.

Why was the movie so abysmally bad?

I always thought the movie was just like the first Sex and the City movie: it was bad because people were expecting an actual story and what they got was 90% rehash of the TV series.

That said, in my experience, I hated the Ab Fab movie in theatre and then watched it again later on a flight and found it really amusing. Ab Fab may in part be better suited to the small screen, somehow. All the same issues were there but somehow on a flight I laughed - sometimes even out loud. SATC movie was never funny, maybe because they weren't recycling funny shit, just more Carrie Bradshaw at her worst storylines. I never had any desire to watch it again.

Jennifer Saunders said the Abfab movie was the end. No more Abfab after that.

Probably smart to let it end but maybe do some projects with the same cast a la Mirrorball. Jane Horrocks was getting too long in the tooth to keep selling the Bubble schtick.

Season 4 was abysmal -- the show stopped being clever, or ever funny, and just became a series of fights between the characters without any humor. Absolutely Fatal for a comedy to stop being a comedy.

Jennifer Saunders once said that after season 3 she just wrote more whenever she needed money. The show effectively ended after three years.

I love the movie. No idea how it did at the box office, but I love it and we still watch it when we're in the mood after smoking a bit of weed.

I think the movie was bad because it was a movie, which means it had investors, producers et al. who had ideas about what the movie should be and influenced how it was made. And because of the emphasis on 'guest stars.'

The show was just Jennifer Saunders's crazy ideas thrown together at the last possible minute, and those crazy ideas were brilliant.

To me, the movie worked. Eddie and Patsy were always the crass fish out of the water pretending to be hip and cool. In the movie, they are relics of a bygone era (and even back then they were outsiders pretending to be part of the cool crowd). The scene with the publisher (played by Mark Gatiss) telling Eddie that she is irrelevant and nobody would be interested in her biography and Eddie just brushes it off is the very essence of AbFab. Another BBC classic, Gimme Gimme Gimme had a similar scene where Kathy Burke's Linda is told to her face that she's an ugly bitch nobody will ever love or even fancy and Linda checks herself in the mirror and immediately dismisses the truth.

Eddie and Patsy will always live in a different reality where they are cool and happening. Even in their old age with their knickers around their ankles.

Don't pass over the bloopers vids on youtube. They show how much fun the whole cast had while doing the series.

Half hour sitcoms don't transition well into other formats. They don't even transition well into hour long specials. That kind of entertainment has its own specific beats to it which are important for the storytelling and the comedy. When you fuck with that, it pretty much always falls apart.

I don't think any of the AbFab specials work very well...The Last Shout has some very funny moments in it but feels very stretched out and padded. I think "Gay" is really dreadful....hardly any genuine laughs in it and "White Box" has a hilarious ending (when Saffy throws them out of the house and it's obviously dummies that she's tossing) but the stuff before it is dire.

Weirdly, I've avoided watching the movie. From what I've seen/heard, I know it's not going to be very good. Between that and the fact it's the final one, I'm just shying away from watching it.

To be honest, I think they should have stopped sooner. It's sort of the same situation as with Lucille Ball coming back to do "Life with Lucy". At some point it becomes painful watching beloved characters get old and especially painful to watch them attempt physical comedy. You hold your breath in fear they're gonna break a hip.

Joanna Lumley is knocking on 80

I was watching the new Apple+ series “Invasion”, and saw an actress who looked just like Naoko Mori a.k.a. “Titicaca.”

It was her.

This was supposed to be America’s answer to AbFab, and it failed dismally. I remember rooting for it because what’s not to love about Jean Smart, right? Well, this was the answer.

Cybill also was supposed to have been AbFab USA and it didn't come close.

I still think Wendie Malick in Just Shoot Me was a pretty good version of American Patsy, funnier than Christine Baranski in Cybill.

R188 Exactly. The qualities I really like in the early content were hard to sustain.

I did watch the film on a long transatlantic flight, and liked it only a tiny bit, out of nostalgia from my first watching of the show on Comedy Central when I was in school.

Short form television comedy is really hard to translate into film, ask Amy Sedaris.

The people in the audience actually laughing at the actors is a good bit of the appeal of AbFab. In the movie there is just stone cold silence after the jokes, and it makes the movie (at least the parts I've looked at, which isn't much) seem kind of sad and desperate and forced.

R194 Was there a live audience? I always misunderstood that the filming process was all chaotic because the scripts were never ready, and there was always a lot of waiting around. I thought they used laugh tracks. In the outtakes, they show Jennifer and Joanna commenting to people off camera, but thought those comments were to the crew, specifically one where Joanna Lumley comments about Jennifer being late to set, and rubs her nose with her sleeve, implying that the writer’s were coked up and past deadline.

Even though I’ve seen every episode multiple times, after reading this thread I’m spending this rainy morning watching S3. I love all the cast, but Joanna really is my favorite.

R196 Mine, too. And she sounds like a super nice lady in real life, too.

Joanna is Catholic BTW. Only a Catholic girl could tap into the depths of Patsy Stone.

^BS, MS (with ALL due respect...)

^^ what is it, you cunt face?

[quote]I don't know if it's *the best* but one of my favorite episodes is a young Miranda Richardson as a friend of Patsy & Eddie's that used to have a fabulous trendy life, only to show up completely frazzled with a baby.

Oh, we've TRIED going green, but it's no earthly use...

What is the story with her an the woman who appears in a couple of the Sisters of Mercy Videos? I've seen where it's completely dismissed, but there is a striking resemblance.

I'm referring to Patsy, Joanna Lumley.

Does anyone have a source for the stories about the scripts being hastily written and last minute? This is the first I’ve heard of it. It’s very surprising. So many of them were so concise and beautifully crafted.

R204 I'm pretty sure I remember Jennifer saying during the movie promotion that that's how she wrote most of the TV show episodes.

R204 Start here.

Dawn French says she and Jennifer "have been known to write on a piece of paper, two big fat guys. Trust us. And that's it."

I’m rewatching series 5 on recommendation of this thread…and I don’t see it. I love Ab Fab and 5 has its moments, but this is easily the weakest season. I’m confused why so many people hate 4 and love 5. There isn’t an episode in this series that even comes close to Small Opening.

I love Season 5. Just goes to show even AbFab appreciation is highly subjective.

“Poor”, when they come out of Harvey Nick’s and there’s a boot on the car tire, Edina says “has that been there the whole time?”

Emma Bunton: "If you think I'm going to take that kind of SHIT off a sweaty overeater the color of an old man's SCROTUM then you have got another thing coming."

"You know I was so long in labor they had to shave me twice."

"When push comes to shove you'll be screaming for drugs and shittin' the bed, darlin'"

Give the drugs to Patsy!!

It's long been rumored that Jennifer Saunders had help writing those scripts including Ruby Wax.

I use AbFab seasons to tell if someone I meet has a good sense of humor (Ie: mine): if they like seasons 1-3., they're in. If they like the later seasons, they're out.

It always works.

I thought Beth Dewoody was the single unfunniest moment of the entire series.

R216, I would have said Whoopi in GAY or Nathan Lane in WHITE BOX.

^ LOL... so bad I don't remember either one of them!

"Fat": "I WANT them to kill me!"

R217, Whoopi was memorable to me for her weird pronunciation of LGBT which is still how I say it in my head whenever I read it.

Magazine (I think!): "I see Mr. Dictionary has deserted us again."

[Quote]It's long been rumored that Jennifer Saunders had help writing those scripts

People are saying?

I really liked Gran talking about her electric shock treatment which left her with an urge to stick her finger into an open electric outlet from time to time. The big smile on her face as she relates the experience makes the story hysterical. Saffy is aghast while Eddie just smirks.

Which was the episode where Patsy played a shopgirl and kept saying WHUT? I watched it close to twenty years ago but it’s a moment trapped in some of the series five episodes I’ve had trouble rewatching.

Too many good jokes, they tossed the jokes away

R224 It’s where she tried to attach herself to Minnie driver

R226, isn’t Minnie driver on more than one episode?

r227, I believe on AbFab she was only once when she hires Patsy as her personal stylist and for some reason Eddie and Patsy get trapped in the panic room, the episode is called Panickin from season 5.

Minnie gets mentioned in the first episode of season 5.

Bubble, of course, has no idea who Minnie Driver is and wonders, out loud, if it is a dwarf.

The girls who work with Patsy are terribly unfunny

R21 - and what she did was an act of humanitarian mercy.

I loved when Bubble said to Minnie Driver, “Catherine Zeta-Jones rather stole your thunder, didn’t she?”

I wouldn’t mind a new special!

R232 haha that was great, Minnie was a real good sport in that episode. I love how she visibly reacts after Bubble only says the name "Catherine Zeta-Jones".